The State of the Union Address.docx

1、The State of the Union AddressThe 2013 State of the Union AddressTHE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens:议长先生，副总统先生，国会议员们，美国人民：Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners

2、for progress.” (Applause.) “It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union - to improve it is the task of us all.”51年前，约翰-F-肯尼迪在这里宣布“宪法让我们成为进步的伙伴而不是权利的对手，”(掌声)他说，“发表国情咨文是我的任务，但是完善国情却是我们所有人的任务。”Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to

3、 report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. (Applause.) After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in 20. (Applause.

4、) Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before. (Applause.)今晚，感谢美国人民的勇气和决心，我有很多内容需要汇报。在十年的残酷战争之后，我们勇敢的穿军装的男人女人正在归来。(掌声)在多年的紧张的萧条期后，我们的商业已经创造了600万新的就业岗位。我们现在开始购入比过去5年还要多的汽车，但依赖的国外石油比过去20年总和都要少。我们的住宅市

5、场正在复苏，我们的股票市场正在反弹。消费者、病人、房产所有者也享受比之前更有力的保护。(掌声)So, together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and we can say with renewed confidence that the State of our Union is stronger. (Applause.)所以，在一起，我们清除了危机的废墟。而且，我们可以说，通过新的信心，我们国家的状态更强有力了。(掌声)But we gather here knowing that there are millions of

6、Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs - but too many people still cant find full-time employment. Corporate profits have skyrocketed to all-time highs - but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged.但是我们来到这里，知道还有数百万的美国人，通过辛

7、苦的工作和奉献，并没有得到回报。我们的经济正在创造就业岗位但仍然有许多人不能找到全职工作。企业利润飙升到了新高度但十多年来，薪资和收入几乎从未上升。It is our generations task, then, to reignite the true engine of Americas economic growth - a rising, thriving middle class. (Applause.)我们这一代人的任务是重燃美国经济增长的发动机造就一个升起的、兴旺的中产阶级。(掌声)It is our unfinished task to restore the basic b

8、argain that built this country - the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or who you love.我们的未竟任务是恢复我们国家的基本协议如果你工作努力并且负责任，你将会领先于别人，不论你从哪里来，不论你长得怎样，或者爱的是谁。It is our unfinished task to make sure that

9、this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation. (Applause.)我们的未竟任务是政府为大多数人服务，而不是少数人；政府鼓励自由企业、奖励个人的主创性，并且给这个国家的每一个孩子都提供发展的机会。(掌声)The Americ

10、an people dont expect government to solve every problem. They dont expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nations interests before party. (Applause.) They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves

11、forward only when we do so together, and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.美国人并不期望政府解决所有的问题。他们不期望在这个议事厅里的我们在所有的事务上有一致的看法。但是他们期望我们把国家利益放在党派前面。(掌声)他们期望我们在我们能走做到的议题上形成合理的妥协。因为他们知道只有当我们一起做这些事的时候，美国才会前进。改善这个国家的责任是我们所共有的。Our work must begin by making some basic dec

12、isions about our budget - decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery.我们的工作必须从如何决定我们的预算开始这些决定将对我们复苏的势头有巨大影响。Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion - mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax r

13、ates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.过去几年，两党共同努力，削减了2.5万亿美元的赤字大部分是通过削减支出进行的，当然我们也对最富有的1%的美国人提高了税率。结果就是，我们已经完成了经济学家认为的足以稳定财政的削减赤字4万亿美元任务的一半还要多。Now

14、 we need to finish the job. And the question is, how?现在我们需要完成这项任务。问题是，怎样完成？In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldnt agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, ar

15、bitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. Theyd devastate priorities like education, and energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. Thats why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said t

16、hat these cuts, known here in Washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea.2011年，国会通过了一个议案。议案称如果两党不能对削减赤字达成一致，那么价值约1万亿美元的预算削减将会自动生效。这些突然的、残酷的、武断的削减，将会使我们的军事准备陷入危险。这也将会使教育、能源及医疗科研等优先问题恶化。这将会毫无疑问地减缓我们的经济复苏，并且还会让我们付出成百上千个就业岗位的代价。这就是为什么民主党员们、共和党员们、商业领袖们以及经济学家们已经说过，在华盛顿被认为是一种扣押行为的这些削减措施，是一个确实无误的坏主意

17、。Now, some in Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training, Medicare and Social Security benefits. That idea is even worse. (Applause.)现在，国会中的某些人已经开始提议防止通过更大幅度的削减教育、职业培训、老年保健医疗体系和社会保险津贴的经费以削减国防经费。(掌声)Yes, the biggest dri

18、ver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms - otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the

19、promise of a secure retirement for future generations.是的，目前推动我们长期债务最大的推手是，养老医疗保障费用的增加。那些非常关心我们老年保健医疗体系的人必须接受适度的改革否则，我们退休项目将会比我们对孩子们的投入更庞大，而且会使得未来几代人的退休保障更加危险。But we cant ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wea

20、lthiest and the most powerful. (Applause.) We wont grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers and more cops and more firefighters. Most Americans - Democrats, Republicans, a

21、nd independents - understand that we cant just cut our way to prosperity. They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, and with everybody doing their fair share. And thats the approach I offer tonight.但是，我们不能让老人和工薪家庭承担削

22、减赤字的重任的同时，不去向最富有的最有影响力的人征收更多的税收。(掌声)我们不会通过向那些已经在艰苦奋斗的家庭简单地提升医疗保险经费或者大学学费抑或是强迫社区裁掉更多的老师、警察、消防员的方法以扩充我们的中产阶级。大多数美国人民主党员们、共和党员们、独立人士理解我们并不能削减掉我们通往繁荣的道路。他们知道，我们基础广泛的经济增长，需要的是一个可以削减支出和税收的每一个人都各司其职的平衡的途径以抵达赤字削减的目标。这就是今晚我要提出的方案。For me, this story begins about 15 years ago, when I was a hospice doctor at th

23、e University of Chicago. And I was taking care of people who were dying and their families in the South Side of Chicago. And I was observing what happened to people and their families over the course of their terminal illness. And in my lab, I was studying the widower effect, which is a very old ide

24、a in the social sciences, going back 150 years, known as dying of a broken heart. So, when I die, my wifes risk of death can double, for instance, in the first year. And I had gone to take care of one particular patient, a woman who was dying of dementia. And in this case, unlike this couple, she wa

25、s being cared for by her daughter. And the daughter was exhausted from caring for her mother. And the daughters husband, he also was sick from his wifes exhaustion. And I was driving home one day, and I get a phone call from the husbands friend, calling me because he was depressed about what was hap

26、pening to his friend. So here I get this call from this random guy thats having an experience thats being influenced by people at some social distance.对于我来说，这个故事是15年前开始的。当时我是芝加哥大学安养院的医生，在芝加哥的南边地区照顾临终的病人和他们的亲属。我借此来观察疾病晚期病人和家属所经历的一切。而在我的实验室里，我当时正在研究“寡妇效应”，这是社会科学中非常古老的一个观点，可追述到150年前，当时被称为是“心碎之死”。举个例子来说

27、，如果我去世的话，我妻子在我逝世之后一年的死亡率会加倍。我当时照料的病人中，有一位是死于痴呆症的女士。和夫妻的例子不同的是，当时照顾这位女士的是她的女儿。这个女儿因为照顾老母而筋疲力竭，而女儿的丈夫也因为妻子的疲劳而患上疾病。有一天我正开车回家，收到一通来自这个丈夫的朋友的电话，原因是他为他朋友所经历的一切感到忧郁。我就这样神奇地接到一个陌生人的电话，全因为他的经历受到了一些和他有一定“社会距离”的人的影响。And so I suddenly realized two very simple things: First, the widowhood effect was not restric

28、ted to husbands and wives. And second, it was not restricted to pairs of people. And I started to see the world in a whole new way, like pairs of people connected to each other. And then I realized that these individuals would be connected into foursomes with other pairs of people nearby. And then,

29、in fact, these people were embedded in other sorts of relationships: marriage and spousal and friendship and other sorts of ties. And that, in fact, these connections were vast and that we were all embedded in this broad set of connections with each other. So I started to see the world in a complete

30、ly new way and I became obsessed with this. I became obsessed with how it might be that were embedded in these social networks, and how they affect our lives. So, social networks are these intricate things of beauty, and theyre so elaborate and so complex and so ubiquitous, in fact, that one has to

31、ask what purpose they serve. Why are we embedded in social networks? I mean, how do they form? How do they operate? And how do they effect us?我也因此突然意识到了两件很简单的事情。首先，“寡妇效应”不仅仅局限于丈夫和妻子之间。其二，它也不仅仅局限于两个人之间。我开始以全新的视角观察这个世界，将世界看成是成双成对联系在一起的人们。我随后又意识到这些人，如果俩俩相配，便会变成四人小组。事实上，这些人都身处在其他各种人际关系中婚姻、伴侣、友情、等等。事实上，这

32、些关联是如此之广泛，我们所有人都身处在这个广博的网络中，与彼此相连。所以我开始以全新的角度看待这个世界，并沉迷其中。我为我们是如何陷入这些社会网络中而着迷，也为这些网络是如何影响我们的生活而着迷。这些社会网络是错综的艺术之作，它们是如此的精致、如此复杂、如此无所不在，使得我们不得不询问它们存在的意义是什么。我们为什么会身陷这些社会网络中？它们是如何成立的？是如何工作的？它们是如何影响我们的？So my first topic with respect to this, was not death, but obesity. It had become trendy to speak about the obesity epidemic. And, along with my collaborator, James Fowler, we began to wonder whether obesity really was epidemic and could it spread from person to person like the four people I discussed earlier. So this is a slide of some of our initial results. It